A Moab woman who acted as a lookout when a teenager dumped a murder victim’s body into the Colorado River last March was sentenced on Feb. 18 to one to 15 years in state prison.

Bluesette Elizabeth Ossana was also ordered to serve up to one concurrent year in the Grand County Jail for obstructing justice during the investigation into the murder of Gregorio Salazar Campos.

The 47-year-old woman, who was convicted of an unrelated drug possession charge in addition to the main second-degree felony offense, asked the court for the chance to start a new life in Arizona.

“I want to go to school and I want to work,” she said.

But 7th District Judge Lyle R. Anderson said he is no longer concerned about how the court system can help her change her life, after repeated efforts to intervene.

“I am more concerned about how to protect the community from you,” the judge said.

In a related case, the judge placed Ossana’s 20-year-old son on probation for two years, after he pleaded guilty to a lesser class A misdemeanor charge of obstructing justice.

Thomas Sloan Dooley, who also pleaded guilty to possession of a controlled substance, could face up to five years in prison and one concurrent year in jail if he violates the conditions of his probation.

Under the terms of his sentence, he must also pay a $1,500 fine, which will be cut in half if he can successfully complete a drug evaluation and treatment program.

Ossana and Dooley are just the latest individuals who have been sentenced in connection with Campos’ death.

Convicted shooter Brody Blu Kruckenberg, who is now 17, pleaded guilty in 7th District Juvenile Court in July 2013 to second-degree felony manslaughter and obstruction of justice.

At the time, Kruckenberg admitted he fired the shots that killed Campos – his mother’s boyfriend – on March 25, 2013. An investigation into the incident found that Campos was shot three times in the head while he slept in a bed at the Kruckenberg family’s home on Riversands Road.

Seventh District Juvenile Court Judge Mary Manley sentenced Kruckenberg to incarceration at a secure juvenile detention facility, where he could remain until his 21st birthday.

Co-defendant Charles “Tony” Nelson was ordered in September 2013 to serve an identical sentence. Nelson pleaded guilty in July in juvenile court to second-degree felony obstruction of justice. Like Kruckenberg, Nelson was 16 years old at the time of the shooting.

Authorities initially believed that Nelson shot Campos, based on information they received from an informant and Nelson’s own statements. But they later discovered that Nelson’s activities on the day of the murder didn’t fit the timeline they developed.

Investigators ultimately learned that Nelson helped Kruckenberg come up with a plan to get rid of Campos’ body, although he was not present when Kruckenberg dumped the body into the river.

Kruckenberg’s mother, Corina Dawn Yardley, 44, pleaded guilty last July to two misdemeanor counts of obstructing justice. In a written statement to the court, she admitted lying to police on two separate occasions when detectives questioned her.

However, Grand County Attorney Andrew Fitzgerald has said that both Yardley and Dooley played minimal roles in the cover-up of Campos’ murder.

As for Ossana’s role in the conspiracy, both Fitzgerald and defense attorney Ron Yengich said this week that she acted as a lookout when Kruckenberg disposed of Campos’ body. Ossana also told Kruckenberg and others how to destroy physical evidence at the scene of the crime, they said.

However, the two attorneys offered the court differing accounts of Ossana’s overall involvement in the crime.

Fitzgerald told the court that his office believes Ossana manipulated Kruckenberg to “do something” about Campos.

Ossana, who admitted that she sold drugs in order to support her own habit, may have viewed Campos as a competitor in the local drug trade, Fitzgerald said.

According to Fitzgerald, both Ossana and Campos gave the boys drugs on previous occasions.

Fitzgerald alleged that Campos supplied Kruckenberg with cocaine and methamphetamine, and his office also believes that Campos gave methamphetamine to Dooley. In one instance, Dooley almost died after he ingested meth that was cut with rat poison or some other dangerous chemical, Fitzgerald said.

At some point around that time, Ossana told Kruckenberg that Campos was a “bad guy,” and said that somebody had to “do something” about him, Fitzgerald said.

After the shooting, Ossana drove Kruckenberg’s car up and down the Colorado River corridor in search of a place to get rid of the body, and she directed Kruckenberg to push the body into the river, he said.

She also told Kruckenberg and others that they had to use bleach to get rid of evidence at the crime scene, Fitzgerald said.

“She took a pretty extreme set of actions,” he said.

Ossana denied Fitzgerald’s allegations that she had any influence on Kruckenberg and Nelson.

“I didn’t direct those boys. They did whatever they did,” she said Feb. 18.

Yengich said the prosecution’s claims belie the information from police reports on the case. Past discussions among investigators indicate that Campos raped a young woman, abused his girlfriend and sold drugs in the community, Yengich said.

“This is from their reports. This isn’t speculation,” he said.

Based on similar stories she heard about Campos, Ossana warned the boys to stay away from him, Yengich said, adding that she only intervened after the shooting, when Kruckenberg and Nelson called Dooley for help.

“Her son receives a phone call [and] she reacts to it,” he said. “That is wrong.”

But Yengich ultimately sought to downplay Ossana’s overall involvement in the crime.

“No one can disagree that Bluesette had nothing to do with the murder,” he said.

In contrast, a woman who has not yet been charged in connection with the case played a much bigger role in the cover-up of Campos’ murder, Yengich alleged.

Fitzgerald told The Times-Independent that his office expects to file an obstruction-related charge against the woman in the near future.

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